The Tachyon satellite network consists of Tachyon Access Point terminals, satellite Gateways with Tachyon Exchange Points, and network support systems, including Tachyon Authentication Servers. The entire network is monitored and managed from Tachyon Network Operations Centers (NOCs). Each Tachyon NOC communicates with multiple Gateways on the network to provide a full suite of network and customer support services including: network and system monitoring, network security and authentication, terrestrial connection to the Tachyon Exchange Point, installation and maintenance coordination and management, conditional access management, business services such as subscriber account management and billing, and a 7/24 support center.

Tachyon Exchange Point The Tachyon network is designed to be as transparent to a Tachyon partner ISP as any circuit-based network while ensuring network reliability and quality. The Tachyon network operates at a switched Layer 2 level, as would a circuit carrier. Tachyon terrestrial architecture provides Tachyon partner ISPs with a number of benefits over other satellite network configurations.

Address Management The Tachyon network is designed so that each partner ISP has complete control over their own address space.

Performance Tachyon utilizes switches with gigabit speed technologies, so that even if many ISPs are connected to the network, there is no degradation of system performance.

VLAN The architecture is designed such that Tachyon creates logical, private networks (VLANs) for each partner ISP. An ISP can have an unlimited number of VLANs, putting administration of the IP addressing completely in the control of the ISP.

Differentiated Service

It is clear that predictable, high-performance service is critical to meeting the networking demands of enterprises.

Multiple predictable Service Levels and an end-to-end Quality of Service (QoS) system are integral in the Tachyon network. Historically, users of shared multiple access channels have suffered from increasing congestion and slower throughput as the number of users online increases. Such slowing is evident in Internet services delivered over cable modems and over hybrid satellite broadcast data services with a phone line return path.

Tachyon has developed technology to ensure data throughput even if a shared satellite transponder should become momentarily congested with simultaneous sessions.

Working directly with scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tachyon has implemented a variation of techniques pioneered within the Differential Services (Diff-serv) working group within the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

The Tachyon differentiated service methodology not only addresses provision of predictable network capacity even during congestion, but also incorporates prioritization of TCP/IP packets for fair provision of bandwidth.

To assign priorities to packets according to service level, Tachyon has implemented a scheme for tagging each packet passing through the Gateway either "In Profile" or "Out of Profile", based on subscriber service level. "In" packets are transmitted through the system under all conditions. During transient congestion, "In" packets pass through the Gateway bridge, but packets marked "Out" are randomly dropped.

Note: The Tachyon network is conservatively and generously provisioned to minimize congestion events.

Tachyon incorporates a rate control mechanism to differentiate services over the shared channel, and establish performance-based pricing for service levels.

The Tachyon approach to performance-based service levels enables Tachyon to offer priority services at a premium price for enterprise "mission-critical" applications, and lower performance throughput at entry-level pricing for less critical services, and for organizations with lower performance demands (e.g., schools, libraries). The Tachyon differentiated service levels are key to assuring efficient bandwidth use, profitability for Tachyon partners through differentiated service offerings, and predictable, high-performance service for subscribers.

Two-Way High-Performance IP] [Network] [Tachyon Access Point] [Satellite Gateway] [Optimized IP Over Satellite] [TCP/IP Solutions] [Connectionless Multiple Access] [Inter-Networking] [Pricing]